Mike Bloomberg Pledges Over $200 Million to Anti-Tobacco Campaign But Will It Help

New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg has just pledge an additional $200 million to his cause the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco. While many anti-tobacco proponents believe this is a big step towards educating young people ab out the dangers of tobacco use, there are some out there who wonder just whether or not putting more money into the cause will help at all. While the initiative, which is described as global, has done a lot for instituting smoking bans all across the world, it has not done much in terms of raising awareness for how to quit smoking or smoking alternatives, such as e cigarettes.

In fact, e cigarettes may be the latest product to be grouped in with the anti public smoking movement, as little has been done by the mainstream media to differentiate the products from regular cigarettes. This is especially frustrating to e cigarette users and advocates who feel that the products are a safe alternative to regular cigarettes. Perhaps even more importantly, advocates feel that the public smoking bans should not pertain to e cigarettes as e cigarettes do not put out any smoke. On the contrary they put out a water based flavored vapor which has shown no signs at all of causing harm to anyone, especially non smokers who may be near an e cigarette user. Whether this money is being, to put it bluntly, wasted remains to be seen.